Happy Birthday! Sorry about not sending anything recently, we've been travelling around Australia - we're currently in Micronesia! Hope you're having a good time and will see you when we get back.

Love, Dad"

Problems:

1) Just short of my birthday.... by about, erm, FIVE months
2) Or late, by seven, seeing as I heard nothing for the previous one
3) Or the one before that
4) The last note I received was "Hello from Borneo!", ending with something along the lines of "be back soon"
5) Seeing as I don't live in Australia/Micronesia, and that "soon" doesn't relly mean two and a half years, that wasn't even remotely true.

Is going away again in April for '10 months' [has been 'home' for a couple of years now [with only shirt spells away].

That means at least a year and a half. Oh and he has "possibly" got some photography work in Antarctica [?!] later next year. I might just ask for a forward of all birthday/christmas presents for the next five years.

council tax letter, stating I owed them over 2,000 quid. (Thank you, old tenants). After sorting this out, I received another letter (last year) stating I was being taken to court for unpaid council tax (not quite as much as before) unless I coughed up the cash. Despite being a student, I still had to pay tax for a house I had long vacated between July-August. Amazingly, none of my other housemates chipped in to help. The letter about being taken to court shook me up. :(